Generation Next
by Alex Ultra
Summary: The Yeerk wars are over, they have been for more than a decade now.  So what of the people of Earth?


                Well, here it comes.

                DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Animorphs series.  That belongs to my goddess and idol K. A. Applegate.  Please do not ask me to borrow it from her, she is too far beyond me.

                That is the one and only disclaimer, so I hope you took notes.

                "Speech" 'Thoughts' {Thought-speech}  I know the series uses the arrows, but they don't show up right, if at all.  So I adapted to use the squiggly bars.

                                Chapter 1:

                ~~~~~~***   MY NAME IS   ***~~~~~~

~~~  ???  ~~~

                My name is David.

                I could probably tell you my last name.  The Yeerk wars are over, the Animorphs are heroes.  Earth is open to all sorts of aliens.  And besides.

                I'm pretty well known anyway.

                "David?  Are you talking to yourself again?"

                "No mom."  I finished buttoning up the shirt to my school uniform and looked myself over in the mirror.

                "Well, go get your bag.  You're going to be late for school if you don't hurry."  That's Cassandra, my mom.  She's nice and all, but she tends to spend a lot of time with animals.  That leaves a bit of a smell in the house.

                Not that I really care, it's always been there.

                Besides.  I wouldn't be surprised if I contributed to that smell.

                Like I said.  My name is David.  I'm fifteen years old.  And I am late for school.

                "Aww man!  How could I oversleep like that!?" I was talking to myself by the time I got out the door.

                "See ya later Champ!" My dad waved at me from his car as I ran off.  I never wanted to be taken to school.  I always ran there myself.

                Smiling and waving at him from down the sidewalk, I said good-bye.  "Good-bye, Prince Jake."

                I could see his smile from halfway down the block.

                Like I said, I'm pretty well known.  The first born son to two of the last of the heroes of the Yeerk wars.

                I turned the corner as I headed off toward the school.

                Of course, that was one block down.  Thirty to go.

                Smiling, I put my head down.  My dad insisted I go to the same school he and mom did.

                Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, it was a good distance from our house, which was somewhere out in the country, near the forest.

                As I looked forward, I smiled a little as I did what I usually did when crunched for time.

                'Eye of the Wolf.'

                All that anyone else saw of me was a blur as I ran.  I ran down the sidewalk, around benches, over mailboxes, around lightpoles, and even jumped a number of cars.

                I loved this feeling.

                It was like... being whole.

~~ ??? ~~

                As I walked through the alleys of the city, I cried.

                I didn't belong here.

                With my father missing, and my mother dead, I was alone.

                My name is Jennifer.  Fourteen years old.  My mom had always called me Jenny.  She loved me and I loved her.

                I had to, she was the only one I had ever known.  I never even knew my father.

                I only knew one thing about him.

                He was an Animorph.  The one known as Tobias, the hawk.

                My mother... she was just a girl.  Not really all that different from anyone else.

                Me?

                I'm not sure what I am.  Sometimes I feel like I'm some kind of freak.  Like I don't belong here, I belong somewhere else.

                As I sat down against a building, I leaned my head on my knees and cried.  I cried tears that I had no room for.

                As I did, my tail wrapped itself around my ankles.  A reminder of why I was so different.

                I was a freak, and there was nothing I could do about it.

~~  David  ~~

                "Made it!" I smiled as I pulled on the front door to the school just in time to hear the bell ring.  'Was that the first or the second bell?'

                Shrugging it off, I entered the school.  I was late a lot anyways, so it didn't really matter too much to me.  My Homeroom was pretty lenient anyway, seeing as I live so far away.

                "Yo Dave."

                "Hey Lu."

                "You runnin late again?"

                "Yeah, you?"

                "Not me!  I'm right on time to skip Homeroom!"

                "Hah hah.  Let's get to class already."

                Luis smirked a little.  Dad said he was just like his dad.  I just thought he was a smart-ass that could practically reach the clouds.  Which was odd, since that was exactly the opposite of his father.

                I walked down the hall to my locker.  The same hall that so many Controlled had walked down on their way to have their Yeerks fed.

                It was also the hall down which my father had eaten a spider and crawled around as a lizard.  Was it a chameleon?  Aww, mom knew.

                Anyway, back to the present.

                Or is it the past?  This _is_ in past tense...  Darn those English teachers.  Now I'm worried about what's going on in my own head!

                "Dude, are you okay?"

                It was only then that I noticed I had been staring at my English book, halfway out of my locker.  "Oh!  Uh, sorry!  I kinda got lost... thinking."

                "About what?"

                I laughed in a way that told him how silly it was what I was thinking.  "Would you believe me if I said, 'English'?"

                "Dude!  You're going downhill if you're thinking about English!  Think about a better language!  Like Terrelian."

                "Where are they from again?"

                "Uh... Terrelia?  I don't know!"

                "Dude, you gotta study your aliens a little better."

                "Nah!  I'm havin' enough trouble just keepin' track of humans, thanks!" Lu looked as if he was ready to laugh his head off, which he probably would have if we hadn't been in the school-halls.

                I put my English book under my arm and closed my locker with a smile.  "Come on.  Let's just get to class."

~~  Jennifer  ~~~

                I stole what I needed.  I hated that feeling, of taking what wasn't mine.  Which meant I usually settled for just taking from the trashcans.

                Sometimes, it surprised me how wasteful the people in this city were.  A skilled scavenger could eat like a king from time to time.

                Of course, I wasn't exactly an expert.  This because I only recently had to start learning.

                I often spent time with the alley cats.  I wasn't sure why, but I often found an odd connection to them.

                I often wondered if it was because I was like them.

                As Leo, my favorite and best friend in the world, licked at my fuzzy ears, I calmed quite a bit.

                I'm not sure, but I think he could feel me calm down, and decided to climb into my lap.

                As I stroked his back, he purred contentedly, making me smile.

                People could be mean, but cats were always nice.  Whether he knew it or not, Leo was the only one keeping me from taking my own life.

~~~  David  ~~~

                As I sat in English class, my eyes drooped dangerously low.  Something I apparently got from my dad was a physiological hate of boring subjects.

                Like English and History.

                'Too bad Ax can't help me with those.'  They were, after all, human subjects.

                Oh well, few humans my age could boast the ability to solve four-by-four matrices.  Not that that really helped me a whole lot, but I did get the distinct feeling that I would probably need to know that kinda stuff, someday.

                But for now, I fought the overwhelming need to catch up on the sleep that my alarm had failed to interrupt.

                Subject... verb... what came next?  Oh well, can't remember.

                WHAM!!!

                I was shot awake by the sound of a book slamming shut right in front of me.  "Am I boring you, mister *****?"

                "Huh?  Uh..." I knew that look.  It said 'If you make one smart remark, you're going out into the hall.'  "Sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night." I tried not to work his nerves.

                Even for me, standing still for twenty minutes holding buckets of water was _not_ fun.

                "Well, do try to fight off the Sand-man until the end of my class."

                I hated it.

                As much as it really helped in learning, this mix of American and Japanese school systems really brought a lot of things that were hard to deal with.

                At least I didn't need to learn any Japanese for a coupla years.

~~~  Jennifer  ~~~

                I came back here often.  I don't know why, the lady who lived here was nice and all, but she was human.

                And she wasn't my mother.

                She didn't give me the warmth she or the cats did.

                But that smile was so... welcoming.

                I couldn't help but visit from time to time.

                "Oh, hello again.  Have you come to listen to this old lady some more?" I nodded my head.

                As I curled up on her porch swing, becoming a tiny little ball, her words reached into me.  They worked around the cap I wore and through the shell I had placed.

                This was really the only place I felt safe.

                Right here.  With my mother's aunt.  My only living family.

~~~  David  ~~~

                As usual, I whizzed right through math class, and shot right past everyone else in the computers class I had after that.

                Then came History.

                And that old habit, the one that seemed ingrained into me from way too far back to reach, came back in full force.

                "David, you're snoring."

                "Huh?" I found myself with a piece of paper stuck to my forehead.  When I managed to pull that off, a paragraph's worth of writing was on the board.  I didn't recognize any of it.  "Oh geeze!  Why didn't you tell me earlier!?"

                Lu didn't say anything, instead, he mimicked my position.  He had his head resting on his left elbow and was staring at a piece of paper.  He had a pencil in his right hand and started scribbling.

                Yeah, that's why.  He, and everyone else for that matter, thought I was writing the notes.

                Not hearing the lecture, I started copying down everything on the board.  Unknown to me, about half of it we didn't really need to know.

                The American civil war musta really sucked.  Not only did you _know_ who your enemy was, it was often your own brother at the other end of the gun barrel.

                Reminded me of the Yeerk wars, and my dad with his brother.

                You know?  Now that I thought about it, the Yeerks didn't seem like they were all that dangerous.

                They were parasites.  Vile creatures that fed off of other races.  By themselves, they really couldn't do much of anything.

                But give them a host and a lancer, and they could do all sorts of damage.

                Especially one of the Oaters, those driven mad from eating oatmeal.

                My hand shook at the thought.  To be trapped in your own mind with someone who couldn't even get a grasp on their own.  To be seen as insane because the one in control of your body _was_ insane.

                I sometimes wondered how long those people stayed sane themselves.

                SNAP!

                I looked in my hand, the broken pencil told me that I was thinking too much.  'Stupid cheap pencils.' Grabbing another from my bag, I went back to writing down the notes, this time remembering not to start thinking.

                Heh, in my case, thinking was dangerous.

                As I finished writing down the last of the notes, the teacher barked out a page number.  Probably telling us to turn to that page.

                "Tonight I want you to read from there to page 135 and do the work at the end of the chapter."

                There wasn't any groaning there, but I'm sure there were some who wanted to.

                That would have been a bad idea.

                As the class milled away I met up with Chelsea.  She wasn't a Animorph's kid, she was just normal.

                Maybe that's why I liked talking to her.  She was normal, but I could talk to her without the topic of my parents coming up.

                "Hey."  
                "Oh, hey!  What's up?"

                "Not much.  I got practice after school.. you gonna come watch?"

                "Sure!"

                I smiled.  She was fun to have around.  We weren't really boyfriend/girlfriend.  But I didn't mind.  She reminded me of my mother, in a way.  Except without the smell.

                I think she thought I was cute.  I couldn't see it, I looked just like my father.  Except for the black hair, which I got from my mother.  And I'm not sure how, but I somehow got blue eyes from somewhere.

                Like me, she had blue eyes.  But her face was thinner, yet rounder.  She had straight blonde hair and looked like she needed protecting or something.  Like a little kid.

                Martial arts took care of that pretty well though.  She could definitely take care of herself.

~~~  Jennifer  ~~~

                I woke up to find myself with a blanket placed over me, my tail sticking out from under it lazily.

                I liked that feeling, of knowing I didn't have to worry.  Of knowing that I didn't have to run from here.

                But I had to leave anyway.  I couldn't stay here forever.  Even when mom was alive, we couldn't stay in one place forever.

                Silently thanking the old lady, I folded the blanket and took off, jumping the fence on my way out.

                It was strange.  Even now I still didn't understand it.  I was like... part cat!  But my father... he was supposed to be some kind of bird!

                How did that happen?

                I didn't take a whole lot of time to dwell on that.  I was still afraid of being seen.  Even _with_ a cap hiding my ears, I still had that tail, waving around for all to see.

                Finding my usual hiding spot, a place in an old area of town.  It was only about half built, but it wasn't all that dangerous a place to be.

                And there _were_ the rats.

                I didn't really like eating them, or even killing them.  But I didn't mind chasing them for a while.

                Of course, if I _did_ want to kill them, for some reason or another.  I had those claws to do it with.

                Between each knuckle, at the base of each finger and hidden by them, three extendible claws.  Each one a good inch-and-a-half long, long enough to reach through a fist if I made one.

                Claws...  CLAWS!!!

                The closest things I should have to claws should be really long fingernails!  I shouldn't have those switchblade-like cutters that could count as hidden weapons!

                As I closed my hand in a loose fist, I thought of something that made me smile.

                I was like a real-life Wolverine.  Right down to the fangs.

                Of course, HE didn't have the slotted, reflective green eyes of a cat.

                He didn't have a two-and-a-half foot tail sticking out his butt.

                And his ears were at the side of his head.

                And that tail.  I hated the fact that I had it.  But I couldn't hate _it_.

                It was one of the few things my father had left me.  That tail, and the rest of it.

                I couldn't help it, and I doubt that he could have either.  It's just... I don't know what to do.  It's like fate is messing with me.  Laughing as I stroke the furry appendage.

                Also, as I sat there, looking at the alternating black and gray stripes that was my fur, I noticed the dirt matted into it.

                I needed to clean it a little more often.  But I _wouldn't_ lick it!

                I don't even have the tongue for it!  As it is, thank god, quite human.  And I don't have the desire to change that anytime soon.  Or at all.

~~~  David  ~~~

                Baseball practice was a bomb.  I didn't need any more training, not really.  And the rest of the team already knew exactly what they were doing as well.

                After that had been demonstrated well enough, practice was let out early.

                I found myself with another hour to do whatever I wanted.

                So, I went where I thought I could be alone.

                An old construction yard.  Not the one where the Aliens landed in front of pop and the others.  But similar just the same.  Funding was lost on it when the research on the remaining Yeerk was started.

                Aliens of all kinds were being scanned, probed, and basically pushed from the planet by its scientists.  They came from time to time, and the less helpless ones brought information on their own physiology in exchange for ours.  Some of them even wanted the results on the Animorph scans.

                They even wanted to know, from _human_ _scientists_, what they had found when scanning those freed from the Yeerks.  To see the subtle changes in the head after the Yeerk left.

                To see what was left behind, and what was taken.  To see the signals that were sent from any brain, any species, from any planet, that had been infected.

                Their findings all but eliminated the Yeerks.  Like the plague, they were confined, and then eliminated.

                Of course, human curiosity still wasn't quenched.  And neither was the pride.

                Pride in the fact that humans had advanced _faster_, if not farther or even as far, as almost all other known races in the Galaxy, even the Universe.  Pride in the notion that we could, given time, develop our _own_ intergalactic drive system.

                We were making great leaps, just because we knew it was possible.  Just the fact that it went from impossible to possible, humans were making the transition from terrestrial to stellar beings.

                And yet, we could barely get things done here at home.  People were starving in the streets, some were driven _from_ the streets.  And then there were the people who were shut out altogether.

                Especially those who were, or looked like aliens.

                And I thought about that.  And _as_ I thought about that.  I thought that, under the definition given, I could technically be called a humanoid alien.  Because I didn't fit strictly to the form of 'human'.

                I didn't know what it was, or why, but I was part animal.  Not just one, but several.  Any and every animal that either of my parents had ever morphed were inside of me.  Not in that I could change into them, but it was rather more like the Indian animal spirits.

                Their _abilities_ were in me.

                Of course, I never thought that there were any who actually changed _physically_.  Which is why I was surprised and speechless when I met that girl.

~~~  Jennifer  ~~~

                'Should I run?' He had surprised me.  He was quieter than most of the people around here.

                He had been staring at his hand, and didn't even notice as he walked in on me.

                "Uh, hello!"

                'Did he just say hello?'  "H-hello?" I squeezed my rat a little tighter, and it squealed in protest.  But I didn't notice.

~~~  David  ~~~

                'Oh god!  What should I say?' "So... do you, uh, live here?"

                The girl nodded.  'She _lives _here!?' "So I suppose that means you're hiding?"

                She closed her mouth, nodding.  I suppose that she was hoping I wouldn't say anything about her tail, ears...  Man!  She's a cat!

                Not that I don't like cats, I love cats.  But how do I avoid the subject?

                "So uh... do you have any friends?"

~~~  Jennifer  ~~~

                I was so scared!  My heart was beating twice as fast as normal!  And that's pretty fast anyway!

                I couldn't stop it.  My eyes watered and I turned around, flinging the rat in his direction.  Not at him, more at the ground.

                Get away.  I had to get away.  I needed to stay away from people.

                I ran.

~~~  David  ~~~

                "Hey wait!  Don't run!"  'Aww great!  Way to talk to her, Casanova!  Eye of the Wolf!' Dashing off at speeds that shouldn't be human, I ran after the cat-girl.

                She was pretty fast herself!  But it didn't really surprise me.  Although it did surprise me when she just jumped ten feet into the air and grab onto a railing on the side of a building.

                'Eye of Kangaroos!'  Slowing on one foot, I coiled and released the pent up power I suddenly had in my legs.

                I jumped a good fifteen feet into the air, hitting the side of the building and jumping off to another one.  I zigzagged from one to the other until I landed on the roof the girl had jumped to.

                I looked around, to see her standing in a corner looking shocked.  "Please!  Don't run!  I'm not going to hurt you!"

~~~  Jennifer  ~~~

                I broke down then and there.  I didn't want to run, and I didn't want to hurt anymore.  If he was going to, I wanted him to get it over with.

                I fell to my knees and began sobbing in self-pity.  "Go ahead.  Take me away."

                "What?"

                "Take me away.  Take me to those men who will look at me and cut me up.  But I just don't want to run anymore.  I don't want to be afraid anymore." I was all-out crying now, staring at the roof of the building we were standing on.

                I heard him walking slowly toward me.  'This is it.  It's gonna be over.'

                I felt pressure on my back, sides, and to the front.  It was warm, and I could hear his heart.  It sounded a bit like mine, beating just as fast and just as hard.

                "I won't hurt you, and I won't let them hurt you either.  You can trust me."

                As much as I never thought I would hear those words from anyone, I wanted to believe them.  And the last thing I wanted to do was run any more.

                I never let anyone see me cry before except my mother.  But I did it.

                I leaned into this shoulder, and cried.

~~~  David  ~~~

                I didn't know what to think.  I wasn't sure if it was the ears, or the tail.  Or maybe it was something about her as a whole?  But she seemed to be the cutest thing I had ever seen.  And I couldn't stand to see her like that.

                Scared.  Out of energy.  Lost.

                I didn't want to see her give up like that.  That was something dad had practically beaten into me.  'Never give up.'

                I wasn't the greatest with girls, but whenever Chelsea had felt like giving up, she usually told me to hold her.  So I figured it might work with this girl.

                And she looked like she really needed a hug about then.

                'I need to say something.  But what can I say?'

                I didn't know what to say, and I figured she probably wouldn't hear me anyway.  So I just sat there, and waited for her to finish.

                After a while, after my shirt had been thoroughly soaked, she fell asleep.

                She was dirty and her clothes were a bit too small.

                But that was nothing.  It was the other things, those things that made her afraid, that made me make a decision.

                I wrapped up her tail and picked her up into the air.

                I took her to a place.  The only place I thought she could be safe.

                Mom and dad would know what to do.

                ~~~~~~***   End of Chapter 1   ***~~~~~~

                Quick note.  Jennifer's cat-like features are designed after Tobias's cat, Dude.  His first morph.

                And now that I've said that.  I would like some feedback.  Review me!

Bringer of Hope and Creator of Worlds

                Alex and Alex Ultra

                                LATER


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